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Sunday, March 27, 2011

Great News for Seniors: Don't Expect a Social Security COLA Any Time Soon

I doubt this will be a problem for Obama and the Democrats. They'll just run on the platform of the evil Republicans want to take away your Social Security, so be thankful you still have it.

Millions of retired and disabled people in the United States had better brace for another year with no increase in Social Security payments.

The government is projecting a slight cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security benefits next year, the first increase since 2009. But for most beneficiaries, rising Medicare premiums threaten to wipe out any increase in payments, leaving them without a raise for a third straight year.

About 45 million people - one in seven in the country - receive both Medicare and Social Security. By law, beneficiaries have their Medicare Part B premiums, which cover doctor visits, deducted from their Social Security payments each month.

At some point the country needs to address entitlements. And the sense of entitlement. Good luck with that.

According to a Greenville News account posted on his website, Gowdy "described a recent school classroom where most children indicated they think it's the government's job to provide health care, Social Security and education. 'We've got to do something about the sense of entitlement,' Gowdy said."

2 comments:

Go figure, the 'entitled' take a back seat to the Privileged union, politicians and other Federal workerbees who are paid wages and benefits at almost twice the amount as regular private workerbees. IMHO, part of the solution to this should be, until the federal debt starts dropping to zero, the amount qualifying for a COLA the Privileged federal workers should be limited to no more than the poverty level. There's no reason someone earning 100k should get twice the COLA as someone earning 50k. A strong case could be (should be?) made that the interest of equalizing private and public sector wages and benefits, as well as easing the federal debt, there should be a reverse federal COLA until things are sorted out. If this promotes some of the bureaucratic centralized idiocy of the federal government's taxes and regulations to go away so there's more private sector growth, so be it... It ain't happening with status quo COLAs going to federal workers and politicians...